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Monsters of Men

With Bonus Short Story

Paperback
5.25"W x 8.5"H x 1.63"D   | 21 oz | 10 per carton
On sale Jul 22, 2014 | 656 Pages | 9780763676193
Age 14 and up
Reading Level: Lexile 1010L

“Harrowing, heartbreaking, and brutally human . . . a masterpiece of speculative fiction and social commentary.” —Neal Shusterman, New York Times best-selling author of the Arc of a Scythe trilogy

The international bestseller and masterpiece of science fiction

As a world-ending war surges to life around them, Todd and Viola face unspeakably vast consequences of each action, each word, each monstrous decision. The indigenous Spackle are mobilizing to avenge their murdered kin, ruthless human leaders are defending their factions, and a convoy of new settlers is approaching. All the while, the ceaseless Noise continues laying all thoughts bare—and the projected will of the few threatens to overwhelm the desperate desire of the many.
Patrick Ness is the author of the critically acclaimed and best-selling Chaos Walking trilogy, as well as Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody and it sequel, Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody: The Hat of Great Importance. He wrote the #1 New York Times bestseller A Monster Calls (inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd), which won both the Carnegie Medal and the Kate Greenaway Medal, was a Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist, and was made into a major motion picture for which he wrote the screenplay. He is also the author of More Than This, Release, Different for Boys, The Rest of Us Just Live Here, and Burn. His many accolades include two Carnegie Medals, an Olivier Award, the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, the BookTrust Teenage Prize, and the Costa Children’s Book Award. Patrick Ness lives in Los Angeles and London.
Available for sale exclusive:
•     Afghanistan
•     Aland Islands
•     Albania
•     Algeria
•     Andorra
•     Angola
•     Anguilla
•     Antarctica
•     Antigua/Barbuda
•     Argentina
•     Armenia
•     Aruba
•     Austria
•     Azerbaijan
•     Bahamas
•     Bahrain
•     Bangladesh
•     Barbados
•     Belarus
•     Belgium
•     Belize
•     Benin
•     Bermuda
•     Bhutan
•     Bolivia
•     Bonaire, Saba
•     Bosnia Herzeg.
•     Botswana
•     Bouvet Island
•     Brazil
•     Brit.Ind.Oc.Ter
•     Brit.Virgin Is.
•     Brunei
•     Bulgaria
•     Burkina Faso
•     Burundi
•     Cambodia
•     Cameroon
•     Canada
•     Cape Verde
•     Cayman Islands
•     Centr.Afr.Rep.
•     Chad
•     Chile
•     China
•     Christmas Islnd
•     Cocos Islands
•     Colombia
•     Comoro Is.
•     Congo
•     Cook Islands
•     Costa Rica
•     Croatia
•     Curacao
•     Cyprus
•     Czech Republic
•     Dem. Rep. Congo
•     Denmark
•     Djibouti
•     Dominica
•     Dominican Rep.
•     Ecuador
•     Egypt
•     El Salvador
•     Equatorial Gui.
•     Eritrea
•     Estonia
•     Ethiopia
•     Falkland Islnds
•     Faroe Islands
•     Fiji
•     Finland
•     France
•     Fren.Polynesia
•     French Guinea
•     Gabon
•     Gambia
•     Georgia
•     Germany
•     Ghana
•     Gibraltar
•     Greece
•     Greenland
•     Grenada
•     Guadeloupe
•     Guam
•     Guatemala
•     Guernsey
•     Guinea Republic
•     Guinea-Bissau
•     Guyana
•     Haiti
•     Heard/McDon.Isl
•     Honduras
•     Hong Kong
•     Hungary
•     Iceland
•     India
•     Indonesia
•     Iraq
•     Isle of Man
•     Israel
•     Italy
•     Ivory Coast
•     Jamaica
•     Japan
•     Jersey
•     Jordan
•     Kazakhstan
•     Kenya
•     Kiribati
•     Kuwait
•     Kyrgyzstan
•     Laos
•     Latvia
•     Lebanon
•     Lesotho
•     Liberia
•     Libya
•     Liechtenstein
•     Lithuania
•     Luxembourg
•     Macau
•     Macedonia
•     Madagascar
•     Malawi
•     Malaysia
•     Maldives
•     Mali
•     Malta
•     Marshall island
•     Martinique
•     Mauritania
•     Mauritius
•     Mayotte
•     Mexico
•     Micronesia
•     Minor Outl.Ins.
•     Moldavia
•     Monaco
•     Mongolia
•     Montenegro
•     Montserrat
•     Morocco
•     Mozambique
•     Myanmar
•     Namibia
•     Nauru
•     Nepal
•     Netherlands
•     New Caledonia
•     Nicaragua
•     Niger
•     Nigeria
•     Niue
•     Norfolk Island
•     North Mariana
•     Norway
•     Oman
•     Pakistan
•     Palau
•     Palestinian Ter
•     Panama
•     PapuaNewGuinea
•     Paraguay
•     Peru
•     Philippines
•     Pitcairn Islnds
•     Poland
•     Portugal
•     Puerto Rico
•     Qatar
•     Reunion Island
•     Romania
•     Russian Fed.
•     Rwanda
•     S. Sandwich Ins
•     Saint Martin
•     Samoa,American
•     San Marino
•     SaoTome Princip
•     Saudi Arabia
•     Senegal
•     Serbia
•     Seychelles
•     Sierra Leone
•     Singapore
•     Sint Maarten
•     Slovakia
•     Slovenia
•     Solomon Islands
•     Somalia
•     South Africa
•     South Korea
•     South Sudan
•     Spain
•     Sri Lanka
•     St Barthelemy
•     St. Helena
•     St. Lucia
•     St. Vincent
•     St.Chr.,Nevis
•     St.Pier,Miquel.
•     Sth Terr. Franc
•     Sudan
•     Suriname
•     Svalbard
•     Swaziland
•     Sweden
•     Switzerland
•     Syria
•     Tadschikistan
•     Taiwan
•     Tanzania
•     Thailand
•     Timor-Leste
•     Togo
•     Tokelau Islands
•     Tonga
•     Trinidad,Tobago
•     Tunisia
•     Turkey
•     Turkmenistan
•     Turks&Caicos Is
•     Tuvalu
•     US Virgin Is.
•     USA
•     Uganda
•     Ukraine
•     Unit.Arab Emir.
•     Uruguay
•     Uzbekistan
•     Vanuatu
•     Vatican City
•     Venezuela
•     Vietnam
•     Wallis,Futuna
•     West Saharan
•     Western Samoa
•     Yemen
•     Zambia
•     Zimbabwe

Not available for sale:
•     Australia
•     Cuba
•     Iran
•     Ireland
•     New Zealand
•     North Korea
•     United Kingdom

“War,” says Mayor Prentiss, his eyes glinting. “At last.”
   “Shut up,” I say. “There ain’t no at last about it. The only one who wants this is you.”
   “Nevertheless,” he says, turning to me with a smile. “Here it comes.”
   And of course I’m already wondering if untying him so he could fight this battle was the worst mistake of my life – 
   But no – 
  No, it’s gonna keep her safe. It’s what I had to do to keep her safe.
   And I will make him keep her safe if I have to kill him to do it.
   And so with the sun setting, me and the Mayor stand on the rubble of the cathedral and look out across the town square, as the army of Spackle make their way down the zigzag hill in front of us, blowing their battlehorn with a sound that could tear you right in two – 
   As Mistress Coyle’s army of the Answer marches into town behind us, bombing everything in its path Boom! Boom! BOOM! – 
   As the first soldiers of the Mayor’s own army start arriving in quick formayshun from the south, Mr. Hammar at their front, crossing the square toward us to get new orders – 
   As the people of New Prentisstown run for their lives in any and every direkshun – 
   As the scout ship from the incoming settlers lands on a hill somewhere near Mistress Coyle, the worst possible place for ’em – 
   As Davy Prentiss lies dead in the rubble below us, shot by his own father, shot by the man I just set free – 
   And as Viola – 
  My Viola – 
   Races out on horseback into the middle of it all, her ankles broken, not even able to stand up on her own – 
  Yes, I think.
   Here it comes.
   The end of everything.
   The end of it all.
   “Oh, yes, Todd,” says the Mayor, rubbing his hands together. “Oh, yes, indeed.”
   And he says the word again, says it like it’s his every last wish come true.
  “War.”
 
[Todd]

"We hit the Spackle head on!” the Mayor shouts at the men, aiming his Noise right in the middle of everyone’s heads.
   Even mine.
  “They’ll be gathering at the bottom of the road,” he says, “but that’s as far as they’re going to go!”
   I put a hand on Angharrad’s flank beneath me. In under two minutes, the Mayor had us up on horseback, Morpeth and Angharrad coming running from round the back of the ruins of the cathedral, and by the time we’d hopped up, stepping over the still unconshus bodies of the men who tried to help me overthrow the Mayor, there was the army taking messy shape in front of us.
   Not all of it, tho, maybe less than half, the rest still stretched up along the southern road to the hill with the notch on it, the road to where the battle was sposed to be.
   Angharrad’s thinking and I can feel spikes of nerves all thru her body. She’s scared nearly half to
death.
   So am I.
 “BATTALIONS READY!” the Mayor shouts and immediately Mr. Hammar and the later-arriving Mr. Tate and Mr. O’Hare and Mr. Morgan snap salutes and the soldiers start lining up in the right formayshuns, twisting thru each other in coils and getting into order so quickly it almost hurts my eyes to watch it.
   “I know,” the Mayor says. “It’s a thing of beauty, isn’t it?”
   I point my rifle at him, the rifle I took from Davy. “You just remember our agreement,” I say. “Yer gonna keep Viola safe and you ain’t gonna control me with yer Noise. You do that and you stay alive. That’s the only reason I let you go.”
   His eyes flash. “You realize that means you can’t let me out of your sight,” he says, “even if you have to follow me into battle. Are you ready for that, Todd?”
   “I’m ready,” I say, even tho I ain’t but I’m trying not to think about it.
   “I have a feeling you’ll do well,” he says.
   “Shut up,” I say. “I beat you once, I’ll beat you again.”
   He grins. “Of that I have no doubt.”
   “THE MEN ARE READY, SIR!” Mr. Hammar shouts from his horse, saluting fiercely.
   The Mayor keeps his eyes on me. “The men are ready, Todd,” he says, his voice teasing. “Are you?”
   “Just get on with it.”
   And his smile gets even wider. He turns to the men. “Two divisions down the western road for the first attack!” His voice snakes thru everyone’s head again, like a sound you can’t ignore. “Captain Hammar’s division at the front, Captain Morgan taking the rear! Captains Tate and O’Hare will round up the rest of the men and armaments yet to arrive and join the fray with the greatest dispatch.”
  Armaments? I think.
  “If the fight isn’t already over by the time they join us –”
   The men laugh at this, a loud, nervous, aggressive kind of laugh.
  “Then as a united army, we will drive the Spackle back up that hill and make them regret the day they were EVER BORN!”
   And the men give a roaring cheer.
   “Sir!” Captain Hammar shouts. “What about the army of the Answer, sir?”
   “First we beat the Spackle,” says the Mayor, “then the Answer will be child’s play.”
   He looks across his army of men and back up the hill to the Spackle army, still marching down. Then he raises his fist and gives the loudest Noise shout of all, a shout that bores right down into the very center of every man hearing it.
  “TO BATTLE!”
 “TO BATTLE!” the army cries back at him and sets off at a fierce pace outta the square, racing toward the zigzag hill – 
   The Mayor looks at me one last time, like he can barely keep from laughing at how much fun he’s having. And without another word, he spurs Morpeth hard in the sides and they gallop into the square after the departing army.
   The army heading off to war.
   Follow? Angharrad asks, fear coming off her like sweat.
   “He’s right,” I say. “We can’t let him out of our sight. He’s got to keep his word. He’s got to win his war. He’s got to save her.”
   For her, Angharrad thinks.
  For her, I think back, all my feeling about her behind it.
   And I think her name – 
  Viola.
   And Angharrad leaps forward into battle.
Inventive, gut-wrenching, and all-consuming, this is an unforgettable coming-of-age reading experience.
—Chloe Gong, #1 New York Times best-selling author of Coldwire

There is so much to love about the remarkable Patrick Ness! Above all, his deep, ferocious respect for young readers.
—#1 New York Times best-selling author Libba Bray

An epic journey through both a sci-fi world of extraordinary imagination and an emotional landscape of gripping intensity.
—Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of the Hugo Award–winning Children of Time series

Intelligent, compelling, and utterly devastating, Chaos Walking is one of the seminal YA series of this century. No one gets you in the feels like Patrick Ness.
—Juno Dawson, author of Her Majesty’s Royal Coven

A triumph. —The Times (London)

Readers shouldn’t expect to get much sleep until they’ve turned the final page. —The Wall Street Journal

A powerful conclusion. . . . Grueling but triumphant.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

This is science fiction at its best
—Booklist (starred review)

This is a complex and engrossing work that series fans will devour.
—School Library Journal

About

“Harrowing, heartbreaking, and brutally human . . . a masterpiece of speculative fiction and social commentary.” —Neal Shusterman, New York Times best-selling author of the Arc of a Scythe trilogy

The international bestseller and masterpiece of science fiction

As a world-ending war surges to life around them, Todd and Viola face unspeakably vast consequences of each action, each word, each monstrous decision. The indigenous Spackle are mobilizing to avenge their murdered kin, ruthless human leaders are defending their factions, and a convoy of new settlers is approaching. All the while, the ceaseless Noise continues laying all thoughts bare—and the projected will of the few threatens to overwhelm the desperate desire of the many.

Creators

Patrick Ness is the author of the critically acclaimed and best-selling Chaos Walking trilogy, as well as Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody and it sequel, Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody: The Hat of Great Importance. He wrote the #1 New York Times bestseller A Monster Calls (inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd), which won both the Carnegie Medal and the Kate Greenaway Medal, was a Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist, and was made into a major motion picture for which he wrote the screenplay. He is also the author of More Than This, Release, Different for Boys, The Rest of Us Just Live Here, and Burn. His many accolades include two Carnegie Medals, an Olivier Award, the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, the BookTrust Teenage Prize, and the Costa Children’s Book Award. Patrick Ness lives in Los Angeles and London.

Excerpt

“War,” says Mayor Prentiss, his eyes glinting. “At last.”
   “Shut up,” I say. “There ain’t no at last about it. The only one who wants this is you.”
   “Nevertheless,” he says, turning to me with a smile. “Here it comes.”
   And of course I’m already wondering if untying him so he could fight this battle was the worst mistake of my life – 
   But no – 
  No, it’s gonna keep her safe. It’s what I had to do to keep her safe.
   And I will make him keep her safe if I have to kill him to do it.
   And so with the sun setting, me and the Mayor stand on the rubble of the cathedral and look out across the town square, as the army of Spackle make their way down the zigzag hill in front of us, blowing their battlehorn with a sound that could tear you right in two – 
   As Mistress Coyle’s army of the Answer marches into town behind us, bombing everything in its path Boom! Boom! BOOM! – 
   As the first soldiers of the Mayor’s own army start arriving in quick formayshun from the south, Mr. Hammar at their front, crossing the square toward us to get new orders – 
   As the people of New Prentisstown run for their lives in any and every direkshun – 
   As the scout ship from the incoming settlers lands on a hill somewhere near Mistress Coyle, the worst possible place for ’em – 
   As Davy Prentiss lies dead in the rubble below us, shot by his own father, shot by the man I just set free – 
   And as Viola – 
  My Viola – 
   Races out on horseback into the middle of it all, her ankles broken, not even able to stand up on her own – 
  Yes, I think.
   Here it comes.
   The end of everything.
   The end of it all.
   “Oh, yes, Todd,” says the Mayor, rubbing his hands together. “Oh, yes, indeed.”
   And he says the word again, says it like it’s his every last wish come true.
  “War.”
 
[Todd]

"We hit the Spackle head on!” the Mayor shouts at the men, aiming his Noise right in the middle of everyone’s heads.
   Even mine.
  “They’ll be gathering at the bottom of the road,” he says, “but that’s as far as they’re going to go!”
   I put a hand on Angharrad’s flank beneath me. In under two minutes, the Mayor had us up on horseback, Morpeth and Angharrad coming running from round the back of the ruins of the cathedral, and by the time we’d hopped up, stepping over the still unconshus bodies of the men who tried to help me overthrow the Mayor, there was the army taking messy shape in front of us.
   Not all of it, tho, maybe less than half, the rest still stretched up along the southern road to the hill with the notch on it, the road to where the battle was sposed to be.
   Angharrad’s thinking and I can feel spikes of nerves all thru her body. She’s scared nearly half to
death.
   So am I.
 “BATTALIONS READY!” the Mayor shouts and immediately Mr. Hammar and the later-arriving Mr. Tate and Mr. O’Hare and Mr. Morgan snap salutes and the soldiers start lining up in the right formayshuns, twisting thru each other in coils and getting into order so quickly it almost hurts my eyes to watch it.
   “I know,” the Mayor says. “It’s a thing of beauty, isn’t it?”
   I point my rifle at him, the rifle I took from Davy. “You just remember our agreement,” I say. “Yer gonna keep Viola safe and you ain’t gonna control me with yer Noise. You do that and you stay alive. That’s the only reason I let you go.”
   His eyes flash. “You realize that means you can’t let me out of your sight,” he says, “even if you have to follow me into battle. Are you ready for that, Todd?”
   “I’m ready,” I say, even tho I ain’t but I’m trying not to think about it.
   “I have a feeling you’ll do well,” he says.
   “Shut up,” I say. “I beat you once, I’ll beat you again.”
   He grins. “Of that I have no doubt.”
   “THE MEN ARE READY, SIR!” Mr. Hammar shouts from his horse, saluting fiercely.
   The Mayor keeps his eyes on me. “The men are ready, Todd,” he says, his voice teasing. “Are you?”
   “Just get on with it.”
   And his smile gets even wider. He turns to the men. “Two divisions down the western road for the first attack!” His voice snakes thru everyone’s head again, like a sound you can’t ignore. “Captain Hammar’s division at the front, Captain Morgan taking the rear! Captains Tate and O’Hare will round up the rest of the men and armaments yet to arrive and join the fray with the greatest dispatch.”
  Armaments? I think.
  “If the fight isn’t already over by the time they join us –”
   The men laugh at this, a loud, nervous, aggressive kind of laugh.
  “Then as a united army, we will drive the Spackle back up that hill and make them regret the day they were EVER BORN!”
   And the men give a roaring cheer.
   “Sir!” Captain Hammar shouts. “What about the army of the Answer, sir?”
   “First we beat the Spackle,” says the Mayor, “then the Answer will be child’s play.”
   He looks across his army of men and back up the hill to the Spackle army, still marching down. Then he raises his fist and gives the loudest Noise shout of all, a shout that bores right down into the very center of every man hearing it.
  “TO BATTLE!”
 “TO BATTLE!” the army cries back at him and sets off at a fierce pace outta the square, racing toward the zigzag hill – 
   The Mayor looks at me one last time, like he can barely keep from laughing at how much fun he’s having. And without another word, he spurs Morpeth hard in the sides and they gallop into the square after the departing army.
   The army heading off to war.
   Follow? Angharrad asks, fear coming off her like sweat.
   “He’s right,” I say. “We can’t let him out of our sight. He’s got to keep his word. He’s got to win his war. He’s got to save her.”
   For her, Angharrad thinks.
  For her, I think back, all my feeling about her behind it.
   And I think her name – 
  Viola.
   And Angharrad leaps forward into battle.

Praise

Inventive, gut-wrenching, and all-consuming, this is an unforgettable coming-of-age reading experience.
—Chloe Gong, #1 New York Times best-selling author of Coldwire

There is so much to love about the remarkable Patrick Ness! Above all, his deep, ferocious respect for young readers.
—#1 New York Times best-selling author Libba Bray

An epic journey through both a sci-fi world of extraordinary imagination and an emotional landscape of gripping intensity.
—Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of the Hugo Award–winning Children of Time series

Intelligent, compelling, and utterly devastating, Chaos Walking is one of the seminal YA series of this century. No one gets you in the feels like Patrick Ness.
—Juno Dawson, author of Her Majesty’s Royal Coven

A triumph. —The Times (London)

Readers shouldn’t expect to get much sleep until they’ve turned the final page. —The Wall Street Journal

A powerful conclusion. . . . Grueling but triumphant.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

This is science fiction at its best
—Booklist (starred review)

This is a complex and engrossing work that series fans will devour.
—School Library Journal
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